WE SAY: Rugby’s soap opera must come to end

OUR VIEW: IF the culture that revolves around "Australia's least-watched footy code" reflects Australia's, we are in dire trouble.

Coach Ewen McKenzie, after he resigned on Saturday after only 14 months, left Australian Rugby Union in a far worse state than he found it. All the same, his resignation is understandable. It was not about a few losses.

It was about the way the business manager on his coaching staff, former Sunshine Coast woman Di Patston, was treated.

Kurtley Beale's lewd text messages were bad enough, but the ill-informed innuendo and raised eyebrows that followed were worse.

Ms Patston, who had been on McEwen's management team that took the Queensland Reds to the Southern Hemisphere championship in 2012, was the team's business manager.

The ARU defended her, saying media speculation - including direct questions to McKenzie about his relationship with Ms Patston, which he said was purely business - helped to bring on the Wallaby coach's decision.

McKenzie is a hard man.

But focusing on the issues Australia has on the field was difficult enough without issues that should have been handled by the ARU.

So begins a mad scramble to find a coach who will not be as good as McKenzie.

And the Wallabies soap opera, one that few fans want to watch, rolls on.